The overall objective of the proposed research is to develop and implement an analytical model for planning budget in hospital nursing departments. A Mixed-Integer Goal Programming model is developed and its feasibility is tested on a hypothetical data set. It is proposed to modify and further refine this model and to run it with real life hospital data, so that the model could be implemented as an integral part of an ongoing decision process for planning budgets and expenditures for hospital nursing departments. The model provides a vehicle for cost control by objective decision making in a harmonious fashion with collaboration between a hospital's financial management and pateint-care-delivery management - usually a politically sensitive area. The model will also be useful to government regulators and area planners to standardize and acknowledge the equity of nursing expenditures for various hospitals they might be responsible for.